Here's Who Will Pilot the Starship in 'Star Trek: Discovery'

Between dodging photon torpedoes and engaging a ship’s warp drive, the “conn officer” in Starfleet has a lot of responsibilities. And the face of Starfleet’s latest conn officer — a pilot of a starship — has been revealed. Actress Emily Coutts has been listed in a major role on Star Trek: Discovery.

While Coutts is probably most well-known for her role in the 2015 gothic horror film Crimson Peak, Star Trek fans will recognize the “conn officer” as the person responsible for driving the starship. Sometimes just called the “helmsman” or “navigator,” or “flight controller,” many Starfleet captains from Kirk to Janeway have told someone to “take the conn,” which basically means “take control of driving the ship.” In the original series, Hikaru Sulu was conn officer, while the first season of The Next Generation had a blind conn officer in the form of Geordi La Forge.

Star Trek conn officers: Sulu, La Forge, and O'Brien

While Emily Coutts’s Discovery character has yet to be named, Star Trek has a long tradition of its Conn Officers starting as the ship’s pilot, and rising through the ranks quickly. Sulu ended up being the captain of the USS Excelsior, and Geordi LaForge went from being the conn officer to chief engineer of the Enterprise in just one season, while Mile O’Brien was an unnamed conn officer in “Encounter at Farpoint” who later become the Chief of Operations of the space station Deep Space Nine.

So, if Star Trek tradition continues, Coutt’s character will probably be on Discovery for a long, long time. Right now, IMDB lists her “Conn Officer” role in just two episodes, but hopefully, she’ll be going boldly for much, much longer.